A 45-YEAR-OLD Nicosia man was yesterday remanded in custody on suspicion of scamming another man out of his first homeowner’s VAT cheque.
The same suspect is currently facing prosecution for a similar offence, the Nicosia district court heard.
The court heard that in December last year, the suspect telephoned a Psimolofou man and told him that he worked for the Finance Ministry and was handling his VAT reclaim form with respect to the purchase of his first property in Tseri village earlier last year.
The two men arranged to meet and the suspect allegedly asked the complainant to sign some documents containing his personal details so he could get his money. The suspect also told the complainant he would receive a cheque for the value of €13,483.64 for his new apartment. The suspect then asked the complainant for a “tip” for speeding up the process for him and received €100 cash.
“He promised that he’d receive the cheque within 20 days,” the investigating officer told the court.
After a few days the suspect contacted the complainant and told him that his documents had been submitted to the Central Bank and that shortly he’d be receiving his cheque which he would personally deliver to him.
On February 2 this year, the complainant contacted the suspect who told him that the documents were still with the Central Bank. On the same day the complainant started to suspect something was amiss and contacted the Finance Ministry, where he learned that his cheque had been mailed on January 15 and after a few days it had been cleared. He was also told that no one with the suspect’s name was employed at the Ministry and that employees did not pay visits to people who had applied for VAT returns.
“When the complainant was informed of this he realised that the suspect had duped him and reported the incident to police,” the officer said.
An arrest warrant was issued for the suspect but he was nowhere to be found and had also stopped attending at Lakatamia police station as required by a Nicosia court order for a similar case, the court heard.
Police said investigations had revealed that the suspect had cleared the cheque at a Marfin Laiki bank and had already withdrawn €12,480.
The suspect was finally arrested on Monday following a tip-off and although he had no yet given a statement he had allegedly admitted to the scam and said he had already spent the money from the cashed cheque.
